I can just imagine someone rolling their SUV trying to get the people to fall over.

That's a pretty cool idea.... You could write a visual like an airplane 'leveler thingy', perhaps with a gf meter in one corner

What? A girlfriend meter?

If there is a g-force meter then we could make the empeg spin down the hard disks and turn itself off if we exceed the design specifications...

- Trevor

If you exceed the design specifications at a constant level the empeg is the least of your worries

What? You telling me that I can't take my empeg onto the space shuttle? How would we cope without music!?!

Although I do see your point... I personally would have thrown up/passed out/crushed to a pulp long before there is any chance of getting a car fast enough to exert a constant g force enough to exceed the design spec of a hard disk.

- Trevor

Or throw the car into a spin to plaster the people into the side of the screen. What would be *hilarious* is if the little people became injured a la crash test dummies when they hit the sides, top and bottom of the screen. :-D

Calvin

That would be sweet. Or perhaps a vector display (a dot in the center of the screen and an arrow).. At the pointy end of the arrow is a number indicating the G force, and the direction. :-D Then you can attempt to record skidpad numbers! :-D

Calvin

Or throw the car into a spin to plaster the people into the side of the screen. What would be *hilarious* is if the little people became injured a la crash test dummies when they hit the sides, top and bottom of the screen.

Then if there was a little ambulance that drove in and carted them off...

I am thinking more and more of Carmegeddon right now...

How about the music slows down and speeds up with the g's. So when you hit your brakes real hard, the music will slow down and the voices will get real deep. Then when you hit the gas, it'll speed up and get high-pitched.

Hi everybody

I've been reading the thread fast at work, i've found it very interesting!
I would buy 2 radio kits for our 2 Riocar MKIIa. I work at electronics so it's not a problem for me to solder or even to make the PCB. I could solder here some kits if you want, or ask for prices here in Spain to produce the kits.
I can pay in advance too to have my kits, or whatever you think it's better.

Nice work!!

My e-mail : mpelaz at uni2 dot es (Please write in easy english ;-) )

Cheers:

Miguel
Madrid (Spain)
On a Seat Leon Cupra

This thread has become a tease. Everytime that I see someone has responded, I quickly check to see if it was Patrick, but no luck.
The story of my life.

Agreed. Every day or couple days I see this thread up at the top of the list again and get excited. But someone's got to keep it alive... until there is real news.

I do like the accelerometer idea. There are so many possibilities. I like all the ideas and tie-ins with visuals, but the ability to do 0-60 times and quarter mile times would kick ass.

You can talk about the DJ thingi but keep in mind that it is a concept prototype, not currently a product in development.

Rob

That would be funny!

Calvin

Just to get back on the tuner topic... has a final price been arranged for these much sought after kits? Will there be a waiting list for the 1st batch or is it 1st come 1st serve?

Hi.

Wel, I have ordered a tray of tuner modules (ack! money!), and the PCBs are on order. Everything should turn up in 3-4 weeks, and shipping should be shortly thereafter for the first batch. Initially, I will be sending a small number to a few beta-builders, for sanity checks of the instructions and kits. Once the problems, if any, have been worked out, shipping to everyone else will start.

I'm still planning on batches of 25 kits at one go, and will make an announcement when they are ready. Please don't bombard me with emails requesting to be a test builder, they have already been picked.

pca

Why do I suspect Tony is one of them? :-D

Calvin

Why do I suspect Tony is one of them?

At this time, I have not been contacted by Patrick for this purpose. I would be happy to help if he's interested (and I have offered). Although, since I already have a tuner, I don't actually need one of the kits and it might be better served by going to tunerless beta tester.

Hi Patrick.

One question from me, since I have serious problems stuffing the tuner into the dash of my car:
In Amersfoort, you told us that we do not need to stack the two PCBs on top of each other, but could also connect them by a flat cable. How long do think that cable could get without affecting operation?
Also, how long could the connection between the tuner module and the empeg get?
A 10cm cable in the first case and a 50-80cm cable in the second case would make life a lot easier in my car.

cu,
sven

PS: How many beta builders did you pick? Do they know yet?

Don't forget putting it in the glovebox it works very well for me

The flat cable I had in mind as an option is in fact 10cm long, and the prototype unit has 50cm leads. These could be extended to a meter or so, but I'd be a little hesitant about going much over that.

PS: How many beta builders did you pick? Do they know yet?

There are five or six, and in a couple of cases it may be a pleasant surprise when they get their call-up papers

Patrick

Hi Patrick

The flat cable I had in mind as an option is in fact 10cm long, and the prototype unit has 50cm leads. These could be extended to a meter or so, but I'd be a little hesitant about going much over that.

This really sounds good. I am surely looking forward to getting my hands on one or two of your babys. And I would surely like to test how long a cable can be made to still work resp. work without degradation in sound/receptioon quality, for each of the two possibilties.

cu,
sven

Yippee, I just bought a second MKII (60GB) and don't have a tuner for it...I'll buy one!

boy am I late in the game... I never read the general section... teach me. coun't me in for one, possibly two I will find out on that one tomorrow.

thanks,
sil

The sheer size of this thread kept me away for a while. Now that I've started reading I'm enthraled. Count me in for one!

Hi.

Just a quick update to let everyone know this is still an ongoing situation. The modules and PCBs should be here within three weeks (the tuners were delayed a little for some reason), and everything else is in hand. The two maxim chips used will be ordered early next week, to arrive at the same time as the PCBs, and the remaining parts are stock items which will be acquired just before the PCBs turn up. I want to minimise the length of time stock is sitting around, especially since the components paid for in dollars are changing in value pretty fast at the moment!

On this matter, I have been looking at the cost to our "american cousins" (all my cousins are british, which is a pity. If they were american, they'd be further away), and since the exchange rate has shot up recently, the original $160 is now over $170 and still going up!

Now, obviously this isn't ideal, at least from your point of view. There is a limited amount I can do about it, but one thing is that since the tuner modules are being bought in US$ as well, I may be able to negotiate a lower price on them and use this to offset the change in rates. I'll try to keep it down as much as possible.

In addition, I'm now thinking it might be best, after the 5 or 6 boards in the alpha-test group have gone out, to do batches of 50 tuners instead of 25. I'd like to be able to buy larger amount of parts to get the cost down and shorten the delivery time, but obviously there are limits to what's feasible. Well, we'll see what happens.

pca

Oh the fun of the international market...

This is about the only reason why I actually like the Euro currency: it is valid in a lot of countries now and therefore you don't have to think about exchange rates anymore as long as you only negotiate deals in those countries.

Oh, lately I found a second reason to like the Euro: Trips to the US are becoming a lot cheaper about every second week.

Anyway: Did you order enough PCBs and tuners for the first batch, or just enough for the alpha-test group? I can't wait to get my hands on two or three of those modules. But one would be a good start (don't want to keep others waiting).

cu,
sven

Did you order enough PCBs and tuners for the first batch, or just enough for the alpha-test group?

There are 72 tuner modules and 100 PCBs on order.

pca

Naah - at risk of starting an offtopic flamewar, I'd recommend not going for a BMW unless you can afford a top end 7 or 8 series, or an M3 or M5.

They're massively overpriced - you buy the name!

Of course I only look at cars from a driving perspective, so I have no time for luxury cars anyway, so I am biased towards the Impreza, the Evo 6 or 7, the Lotus Elise etc etc - not necessarily the most comfortable or attractive of cars, but boy can they be pushed hard!!